Palomar Mountain News

The much-loved Spotted Owl closed escrow and I thought some might enjoy this post by the now-prior owner, Teresa. Just so you know, Jim and Teresa aren’t moving. They are keeping their ‘Grey Fox’ cabin but couldn’t resist another near family out of state. Fun times ahead for all!

She and Jim have so many fun memories and family came up to help get it ready for the new owners:

From: Teresa McCarthy

“We sold the Spotted Owl and today was move out day. Seems like yesterday that I decided to drive up while Jim was at work and take a peek at some real estate. I brought my girlfriend with me to navigate up the windy mountain road. Bonnie Phelps drove me here and there looking at at least a half dozen cabins within the budget Jim had set for me. They all intrigued me. In one cabin, Bonnie picked up a little dead mousy and tossed it into the toilet…

At the end of the tour of cabin listings, Bonnie said…. “Well, there is one more that isn’t listed yet but it’s over your budget.” I said, “show it to me”. Oh man it was love at first sight. It was August and the meadow was waist high with Bracken fern. I stood there on the deck and watched a couple of woodpeckers swoop down from the tall cedar tree. I needed this cabin and when she told me the price I wasn’t sure it would fly with Jim. I told Bonnie, let me go home and pick up Jim and we will be back in a few hours. I told her, “please show him the cabins in the same order and end with that dilapidated Happy Holler cabin just before you show him the A-Frame. The next day we made an offer and closed escrow on our magical 20th wedding anniversary. It was October 9th, 2013 and we even had snow. Well here we are almost 9 years later and we have so many wonderful memories in the Spotted Owl. We are sad that this place won’t be ours anymore, but so happy for the new owners. We decided to take one last snapshot today.”